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“COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE” – ARNOLD FOR GOVERNOR

I rarely blog on domestic politics but I pontificated on this eventuallity way back on April 11th. Barring some humiliating or legal scandal ( Arnold’s zest for life is legendary in the bodybuilding community) I predict a Schwarzenegger victory by a healthy margin.

Arnold is a popular media figure who revels in poking fun at his own ” Terminator ” action hero image, clowning around during TV interviews and donating significant amounts of time to charitable causes like the Special Olympics. However there is another side to Schwarzenegger – a ruthless and monomaniacal competitor who is driven to win, be the best and conquer new worlds. Arnold’s apparent about-face on running for governor of California which left close friend Richard Riordan twisting in the wind after the Tonight Show was textbook Schwarzenegger.

Arnold, who was a millionaire from real estate deals and bodybuilding promotions even before his action films began grossing billions could hypothetically flood the California media markets with campaign ads and simply drown out his multitude of opponents, one of whom already exited the race in tears. Democratic leaders appear to be at a loss as to what to do to stop Schwarzenegger who can be expected to be as aggressively dominating onstage with the other serious candidates and who can be expected to follow a populist-moderate campaign modelled on the successful run of Jesse ” the Body”Ventura, the former governor of Minnesota and ex-WWF wrestling star.

Californians should buckle their seats.

AH, THESE YOUNG MULLAHS…WHEN I WAS AN AYATOLLAH IN MY DAY, I…

Good news does exist.

TAKE A PEAK AT CHINA’S TOP SECRET NUCLEAR TESTING GROUND AT LOP NOR

This is a satellite imagery via Adobe Acrobat so if you have dial-up you might want to go out for a sandwich while this downloads.

It occurred to me just now that China cannot initiate any new nuclear tests without the United States and india wondering if they aren’t actually testing Pakistani or North Korean atomic devices. India of course, is worried about China’s nuclear program on it’s own merits aside from any help the Chinese might be extending to Islamabad.

CAERDROIA ON THE CONSTITUTION

In a thoughtful post on Caerdroia :

“I really like our Constitution as is, but I suspect that I am in the minority. The reality is, we have not actually been following large portions of the Constitution since the 1930’s. The Federal government has been increasingly becoming intrusive on private Liberties, and the States have increasingly been becoming puppets of Federal laws and regulations. (Hence, a State may pass a medical marijuana law, but not prevent the enforcement of Federal regulations banning the use of marijuana.) The combination of redistribution of income (both to individuals via various welfare programs, and to States using mechanisms such as highway funding) and the removal of limits to Federal power (via doctrines such as “interstate commerce refers to anything that happens that might effect the economy” and “the government has a compelling interest to do anything it says it has a compelling interest to do” and “a limited time means any time which is not actually infinite, up to and including 3 billion years” and so on and so on).”

I share Jeff’s dismay at the current state of Constitutional affairs which themselves may have contributed to decline in public support for our basic liberties. Or selective non-support, since most people are more interested in curtailing the rights of groups of people they dislike rather than waiving their own freedoms. Jeff continues:

“It is clear to me that, no matter how much I hate the idea, it is time for the States to invoke their authority under Article V and call a Convention for the purpose of rewriting the Constitution. It is far better for us to have a mediocre Constitution that we actually follow, than an excellent Constitution which we ignore at our leisure.

I hate the idea too. Not because Caerdroia’s Constitutional Convention idea isn’t intellectually honest -it is – it’s just that given human nature and the overweeening will to power of the progressive Left and the zanies of the religious right they won’t respect an accurate but mediocre version of the Constitution either. In fact, they’d respect it less because whatever new Frankenstein monster hodgepodge that might be left after a Convention shredded our system of government would not have an ounce of the sanctity in the public mind of the old version. Today at least, the Supreme Court occasionally acknowledges the existence of the Tenth amendment and treats with some seriousness the phrase ” Congress shall make no law…”. After a modern Convention ( you think there are a lot of kooks running for Governor in California ? Call a Convention and watch who files papers) we might as well simply have a small directorate rule by decree because that would be the long term result in fact if not in form.

Octavian became Augustus and Republican Rome became an Empire not by revolution but by doing new things under hallowed old names.

SYMPOSIUM ON IRAQ

David Horowitz’s Frontpagemag.com has had a lively series of roundtable symposiums on controversial topics. Generally, the discussion is of a substantive quality and ideological diversity unseen since ” The Firing Line ” and certainly missing in the mainstream media, including on Left-Right match-ups like Crossfire or even the much vaunted Sunday morning talk shows. The current one on Iraq is no exception and features James Woolsey, Jacob Heilbrunn, David Kaiser and Stan Goff.